ABOUT BEVERLEY J WESTON, MA.

NCPS Accredited, Registered MBACP

Intercultural Psychotherapist, Supervisor & Trainer.

I am an Accredited member of The National Counselling Psychotherapy Society (NCPS); a Registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP); and a Directory member of the 

Black African Asian Therapy Network (BAATN).

My journey into becoming a Psychotherapist began after being referred by my GP during a very stressful period in my life. After having experienced counselling for the first time, I was totally inspired by the ability to make sense of my behaviours and thought processes, and was positively overwhelmed by the outcome of talking to a complete stranger in a professional setting about my problems. I came out of short-term counselling with a significant level of personal understanding and enlightenment that enabled me to uncover my passion for changing lives. 

With no experience working directly with vulnerable people, I volunteered for Home-Start Greenwich for a few years, where I naturally developed my counselling skills through the role as a befriending family support worker. Now eligible for counselling training, my five year academic journey started with a Chrysalis Courses Professional Diploma. I completed my Psychotherapy training  with a MA in Counselling at Goldsmiths University of London. 

I gained a lot of knowledge and experience volunteering for Mind in Croydon and One In Four along the way, and through additional Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training, my Private Practice evolved from specializing in sexual trauma and domestic abuse to now a more ethnic-racial-cultural and spiritually sensitive approach to a trauma informed practice.

My culture-centric approach proved popular and I felt inclined to develop a platform that could support others to practice in a similar way. After establishing and successfully running a Group Private Practice with a small team of associate therapists for several years, I started to lean more into delivering presentations and training, focused on complex trauma informed Intercultural and Spiritually sensitive practice; thus, the ACIT Approach (Afrikan-Centred Intercultural Therapy) was born.

With a background in management I am business minded and have a keen interest in strategic development and integration or services to enhance mental health provisions that particularly aim to improve access and outcomes for minoritized persons. 

I have contributed to several National Health Service (NHS) Trust initiatives in South East London as a community representative. These include Chairing the first cohort of Lewisham's Clinical Commissioning Groups Public Reference Group (Lewisham CCG's PRG) and Co-establishing Lewisham's Independent Advisory Group (IAG) for South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM). I was also a guest speaker at Lewisham's Black Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Mental Health Summit 2018. 

I have a natural ability to motivate and inspire people as I have been inspired. Having worked through my own mental health challenges I've learnt how to make positive growth out of negative experiences 

"My motivation is your mission.. what's yours?"